Page 73of a tea. As expected, the pharmaceutical industry is again trying to out-do
nature by exploring the anti-cancer properties of what they refer to as the “active
ingredient,” Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA).
Chaparral is commonly referred to as the creosote bush. NDGA was shown by S.
Birkenfeld to reduce the occurrence of colon cancer in rats, fed a chemical that
induced that cancer.
D.K. Shalini demonstrated NDGA’s ability to protect genes against carcinogens
and published this experiment in Molecular Cell Biochemistry, 1990.
The breast cancer preventive effect of NDGA was demonstrated by D.L.
McCormick and A.M. Spicer (Cancer Left., 1987).
Leukemia cell cultures were inhibited by NDGA (A.M. Miller, Journal of Laboratory
Clinical Medicine, 1989) Human brain cancer cell growth was likewise inhibited by
NDGA (DE. Wilson, Journal of Neurosurgery, 1989.)
Cancer cell inhibition was intensively explored in the doctorate thesis of J Zemora
(Auburn University, 1984) Regression of the deadly melanoma and treatment of
choriocarcinoma and lymphosarcoma have been sited by CR. Smart in Cancer
Chemotherapy Reports, 1969, and American Cancer Society, 1971.
D. Vanden Berghe demonstrated the anti-cancer and anti-viral activity of other
chaparral extracts and P. Train wrote of use as an anti-bacterial.
Naturally, NDGA is toxic to the kidney and can be deadly when combined with
some biologicals (D.R. Shasky, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,
1986; and J.D. Gardner, Kidney International, 1987).
Because of a rare case in which signs of liver damage showed up after
several months of taking chaparral leaf, M. Katz in the Journal of Clinical
Gastroenterology, 1990, warned that “the public and the medical profession must
be wary of all ‘harmless’ non-prescription medications, whether purchased in
pharmacies or elsewhere.”
M. Katz, of course, did not site all the horrendous problems with the synthetic
NDGA! Given the context, you can take it that this specious warning is effectively
an “all clear”, that is it’s a d**ned site safer than chemo and drugs!